A Baltimorean man experienced a miraculous twist of fate after narrowly escaping the catastrophic bridge collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge, according to his mother.
Jen Woof woke up in the early hours of Tuesday to find her 20-year-old son, Jayden, panicking and telling her that he escaped the disaster in the nick of time.
According to Jen, Jayden was on the bridge a mere three minutes before it was struck by a cargo ship, causing sections of it to plummet into the Patapsco River.
Jayden traveled on the Francis Scott Key Bridge thrice before the collapse due to an argument with his girlfriend
Image credits: Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images
The mother narrated the extraordinary tale of luck and timing to The Telegraph, saying Jayden had traveled on the bridge thrice in the lead-up to the bridge’s collapse because of an argument he was having with his girlfriend.
“He got over the bridge just three minutes before the bridge collapsed,” Jen told the outlet.
Jayden initially planned to stay the night at his girlfriend's place across the river to the north, but an argument pushed him to leave her house and head back home, sending him across the Francis Scott Key Bridge towards the south side of the river.
But the guilt and the hope of reconciliation drove Jayden back to his girlfriend’s house, making him cross the bridge once again.
The 20-year-old man crossed the bridge early Tuesday morning, about three minutes before the Dali cargo ship crashed into it
Image credits: Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images
However, the young man’s efforts to reconcile were in vain, and he found himself heading home once more—crossing the bridge for what would be his last time for quite some time. Three minutes later, the Dali cargo ship struck the bridge and triggered the collapse, leading to six construction workers going missing.
As he reached his home, Jayden found his phone buzzing with texts from his girlfriend asking whether he was okay.
Jayden was "frantically panicking and yelling" when he got back home
Image credits: Rob Carr/Getty Image
“He was actually almost to our house when his girlfriend started texting him to ask if he was OK. He thought she was texting because they were arguing, and she said the bridge had collapsed,” Jen said.
“He came into my house, frantically panicking and yelling for me and showing me a video,” she added.
Surely, for Jayden and his family, March 26 will forever be seen as a day where fate intervened in unexpected ways.
People joked about how the right arguments can be healthy after reading Jayden's story
